time. It’s going to allow you to be more energetic and more present
with your clients when you come back to them, so that’s really
important. Extroverts are the opposite. If you get your energy
from being around people, you’ve got to schedule that in and make
sure you don’t have days where all you’re doing is paperwork.

How common is it to be introverted? We have about a
third introverts, a third extroverts, and a third “ambiverts” in the
population. You have to be honest with yourself about where you
fall in that spectrum and not where you wish you fell. I say that
because introversion is not seen as a prized trait in our culture;
many introverts will describe themselves to me as ambiverts
or extroverts, and I can see they really are not. They’re not
being honest with themselves, and they’re doing themselves a
disservice.

Do you have a sense that, through your book,
you’ve reduced the stigma that introverted people
face in business and in life? Yes, I believe it’s happening,
which is really exciting. I see a lot of famous people identifying
themselves as introverts in ways they didn’t in the past. Harvard
Business School professors told me that in the past they would ask
students to raise their hands to identify if they were an introvert or
an extrovert. It used to be that nobody would raise their hand as an
introvert, and now they do. There are all these qualitative indicators
that things are changing, but at the same time, people need to really
answer this question honestly to assess who they are.

And how about the importance of tuning into your
clients’ personality type? Extroverted clients probably
want to spend a good bit of time sort of schmoozing and connecting
before they plunge into house hunting. If they’re more on the
introverted side, they’ll still want to connect with you and know
who you are, but they’ll probably want to get more quickly into
the matter at hand. They’re going to want crisper, more succinct
answers and to get to the point more quickly.

If you’re introverted and find yourself working with
an extroverted client, how difficult will that be? It’s
not necessarily a problem. Introverts and extroverts often enjoy
each other’s company and will appreciate what the other one
brings to bear. There can be a real chemistry between introverts
and extroverts. You obviously are going to need to connect to
the extroverts in ways they enjoy, but introverts are good at that.
Extroverts like to do the talking, and introverts are often really
comfortable with that. They may be great listeners and great
posers of questions that draw others out. It can work incredibly
well in a sales relationship. You can be the one asking perceptive
questions and listening carefully to the answers.

There’s a misconception that introverts don’t make good
salespeople. That’s decidedly not true. It’s just that introverted
salespeople have to manage their energy more carefully. Another
misconception is that introverts are antisocial. Many introverts enjoy
connecting with people, but they tend to connect in a deep way that
gets to the core of things. They like the challenge of figuring out what
makes clients tick and what would be the right home for them. They
tend to be great observers and don’t look
to have a lot of attention on themselves.

The idea that it’s all about the clientcomes naturally to them. Extroverts havea lot of social energy to spare and areoften naturally charismatic. Introvertshave another set of strengths. It’s aREALTORMAG. REALTOR.ORG REALTOR® SEP TEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 25